


Where Have All the Cowboys Gone

by exeterlinden



Series: Quiet Cowboys [1]
Category: Wilby Wonderful (2004)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Pre-Canon, Public Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-08-10
Updated: 2005-08-10
Packaged: 2017-10-05 14:39:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exeterlinden/pseuds/exeterlinden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan didn't need to see an earring or a handkerchief in the back pocket to recognize this for what it was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where Have All the Cowboys Gone

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Shayheyred for betaing.

The doorbell rang.

"The painter's here, darling."

"Okay,"

Dan Jarvis put down his book and got up. He walked across the living room and swung by his wife sitting in a chair by the window to kiss her lightly on the top of her head. He walked through the kitchen, enjoyed the lovely view from the big windows, ran his fingers over the newly painted walls. He didn't look up before he was right in front of the main door - the door was open, the screen door shut.

When he did look up he was stopped short.

He fought the immediate instinct to turn around and go back without acknowledging the man on the other side of the screen. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He clenched and unclenched his fists.

"You're the painter?"

The man gave him a small, tight smile. He didn't look surprised.

"Yeah,"

He looked older than Dan had originally estimated him to be. Somewhere in his forties. He was wearing overalls and his shoulders were pale. His underarms were dark brown. Looked like he had a tattoo. Dan couldn't see his eyes through the net.

The guy reached to rub his own shoulder. Then he reached into a deep pocket on the thigh of his jeans. He took out a little book and flipped through the pages, "Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis, right?"

Dan flinched at that. Or he felt as if he did. "Yes, that's right."

The man read something off a page in his notebook, his lips silently forming the words. He used his right index finger to underline the sentence he was reading. "I talked to Mrs. Jarvis on the phone...Your exterior walls need priming?"

"Yes."

The painter ducked down a little, trying to catch his eyes. "May I come in?"

He meant to say yes of, course, but the words didn't come out. Instead he just stood there for what seemed like a very long time, in the cool half light in the hallway. He thought he was about to say no then, but then Val called out for him from the back of the house and the realization of her being there - of himself being where he was - startled him into motion.

He took off the hatch and opened the door, and the other guy stepped in. It was hot outside, and the air smelled like sea water and pines. They stepped around each other awkwardly in the narrow hallway. The painter gave him another strained smile.

"Wait here, please," he said, and his voice came out nervous and broken. He was grateful to be able to turn his back on the other man.

He went back into the living room, and actually had to lean against the door frame, feeling dizzy. Val was out of her chair and by his side immediately.

"Dan, what's wrong?"

"It's silly; I think I just got up too fast. I'm going to lie down for a while, would you..?"

"Yes, of course, honey. Go lie down. Are you sure you're all right?" She put a cool, dry hand on his face and looked at him searchingly until he said yes. He wasn't too sure, though. He felt more than a little rattled.

He went into the bedroom to lie down. The bed was neatly made, with the patchwork quilt Valerie had just finished. He lay down on top of the covers, on his side of the bed, and closed his eyes. But he didn't lie there for more than a few minutes before getting up again. He straightened his shirt and ran his fingers through his hair. His hands were shaking a little.

The house was quiet. On the other side of the window he could hear the two of them talking in the garden. He went over to stand by the window. He stood a little to the side and looked through a gap in the drawn curtains.

Ignoring the reflection of his own pale face in the glass he watched Valerie give the painter instructions. Her back was straight and her chest pushed slightly forward. She was touching her neck and face and she was smiling a lot.

She wasn't flirting really; she just carried herself differently when she met male strangers. All women did. Men did too, when they met attractive women.

Her skirt and blouse were being pressed against her body by a light breeze, but the painter wasn't looking at her. He was inspecting the walls, looking at the crumbling boards by the foundation, picking at the peeling white paint, tapping his fingers against the surface.

At one point he moved close to the bedroom window and Dan shied away, feeling scared and foolish.

\------------

His doctor back in Victoria didn't think Dan needed antidepressants, even if his wife thought so.

"I understand that you are unhappy, Mr. Jarvis, but sometimes antidepressants aren't the solution. I don't think you're depressed. Have you considered shaking things up a little, getting a new job, going traveling?"

Dan looked down at his hands folded neatly in his lap and breathed out a laugh. "Well, doctor…"

"Or how about moving? Do you have children?"

He shook his head. The doctor, Dr. Dennis, leaned forward and lowered her voice. "You know, having children tends to change your whole outlook on life. And I speak from experience."

She smiled warmly at him.

Everybody wanted him and Val to have children. They'd been married for five years, come March. He didn't want to explain to Dr. Dennis that they'd been living like brother and sister for the last three and a half.

They loved each other all right, but there wasn't any physical attraction anymore. They gave up on that fairly quickly, and without much fuss. They agreed that they were happily married, anyway.

"Thank you, Doctor, I'll… I'll think about it. What you said."

"You do that,"

He got up and shook her hand. She smiled and winked at him, "Bye now, Mr. Jarvis, take care."

He told Valerie what the doctor had said and they decided to move from Victoria to Wilby. Dan was to skip his job as a teacher and pursue his interest in movies instead.

"…And do something for yourself, Dan. Make something of your own. Your own store, imagine that. And we'll have a house, and be a part of the local community. It'll do wonders for you, I'm sure."

Val spoke with great conviction.

They went out to look at the house. They signed a contract. Dan trusted Val to decide. He didn't know what he wanted, really. He had his own reasons for wanting to move. Thought that he'd be safe in Wilby. Maybe there he could work on his marriage, work on getting better, without being distracted. Without doing stupid things he'd regret later.

He'd done some dumb things in the past.

They moved there early April. Valerie took a position in a tourist shop by the harbor.

He asked her: "Val, when we move there, could we not talk about my emotional problems? It's a small town, you know, and I want a fresh start."

She looked back at him with eyes widened in understanding sympathy. "Of course sweetie, whatever you want."

When he couldn't sleep he went down to the Watch for a walk. He'd gone there on week days and had never met a soul. It was a beautiful, peaceful place. He liked the Watch.

He liked Wilby. He liked the fact that you could walk out in the middle of the night and everything was quiet and you didn't have to fear being mugged, or anything else.

The first time he went down there on a Saturday, he walked all the way out on the cliffs before he noticed the man following him. He kept standing facing the water, and let the other guy walk up to him, preparing to say something pleasant, maybe ask him where he was from, if he was an islander.

But when he turned to face the other man, the guy was watching him with an assessing look, one hand on his hip.

"So, what's up?"

He wasn't very old, maybe twenty-five. Dark jeans, tight shirt. Black hair. Handsome. Dan didn't need to see an earring or a handkerchief in the back pocket to recognize this for what it was.

"You up for something?"

In the distance he could see the mainland lights across the water. He stole a glance at the younger guy. He hesitated for quite a while before swallowing hard and nodding.

When he got home he showered in the downstairs bathroom and blow dried his hair before getting back into bed with Val. She woke up for a short moment and mumbled something and patted his cheek before turning back over.

He promised himself he wouldn't go down there again. He put a lot of effort into getting the video store off on a good start. He joined Valerie on her long walks along Wilby Beach.

Five weeks later he went back to the Watch.

When he got there, someone was already standing on the cliffs. Dan could see the glow of a cigarette in the dark. He walked up to stand beside the other man. It wasn't the guy from last time, this guy was older. He tried to make him out in the dark without staring.

"It's nice out here," the man said, and Dan figured that he wasn't there for that, and was disappointed, but relieved. He put his hands in his pockets.

"Yes, it is. Nice and quiet."

The man bent down and stubbed his cigarette on the rocks. He didn't throw it; instead he took out a half empty pack of cigarettes and put the butt in it. He was almost as tall as Dan, with blonde hair. Long legs. Dressed nicely in new looking jeans and a brown jacket.

Dan looked out across the water, ignoring his half hard penis, trying to think of something to say.

The man put the pack back in his pocket, and sighed deeply. Then he rubbed his neck. They turned to look at each other an instant apart.

Dan started out with: "So are you an islander or…"

While the other guy said: "You up for something?" almost reluctant, with a half smile, like he thought he sounded stupid saying it.

Dan closed his mouth. He was. He wanted it. He nodded. "Yes."

They walked up into the forest, and Dan knelt down to blow the other man, who breathed hard and moaned a little and touched his face really gently.

When he came, Dan swallowed. His dick was hard. He was trying not to think about any of it.

Afterwards, the man pulled him up and turned him around. He pulled down Dan's trousers and caressed his thighs and ass before licking his own palm and then grabbing his penis.  
He jerked him off slowly, pushing his warm, wet, half hard dick against his ass and reaching his other hand down to cup his balls and stroke his perineum.

Dan felt a sharp bite of desire like he hadn't experienced for a long time. He pressed his forehead hard against his hands resting on the trunk of a pine tree.

When he came, he cried. Took him a few minutes to get it together. The other guy didn't comment on it, he just pulled his trousers up carefully and put his hands on his chest, kind of hugging him from behind.

He came home and showered. He couldn't go to bed. He ended up falling asleep on the couch to A Fistful of Dollars.

Next Saturday he wasn't going to go, but he ended up getting out of bed and walking down there anyway. Half way to the cliffs he heard the sounds of someone somewhere inside the forest having sex. He turned right around and went home.

Sunday the guy was there. And the next Saturday.

One time Dan was jerking them off, leaning against the other guy's thighs and holding their dicks together, both leaking and flushed dark against their bellies. The guy moaned and let his head fall forward, kept leaning in until Dan thought for one terrifying moment that he was going to kiss him. He shook and came, and kept coming.

The other man didn't kiss him; he just rested his forehead against Dan's and gasped for breath.

When he allowed himself to think about it - to think about the Watch and what went on there - the guy made Dan think of his old Bill &amp; Ben paperback westerns, for no obvious reason.  
He wondered which one of them was Bill and who was Ben, and then he laughed at himself for being ridiculous.

Then he got scared. He also thought that this was getting dangerous, that this was choosing one guy. This was sex, not just getting off so he didn't have to think about it for a while.

\-------------

The painter moved away from the window, moved towards Valerie. She explained something, gesticulating at the terrace, while the guy nodded and scratched his arm.

Dan hadn't known that he was an islander. He hadn't really thought that Wilby was big enough for more than one of that kind, more than himself.

The painter left after half an hour. Valerie waved goodbye and then turned around to go back inside. Dan stood by the window until he couldn't see the truck anymore, then he walked out into the living room, to Valerie coming back.

"Oh darling, you still look a little pale."

"I'm ok, Val."

They looked at each other in silence.

"Is there another painter in town?"

She narrowed her eyes a little, "No, Walter – Duck - is the only one… Why?"

Walter. Duck. Neither Ben or Bill, then. Stupid. He was stupid to have done this.

"He just looked… I don't know - he didn't look very professional to me."

Val cocked her head, "This is Wilby, honey. Besides he was very nice. A very pleasant man."

She nodded to herself as if that settled it.

"I was thinking meat loaf for dinner; does that sound good to you?" She was already walking away.

"Yes, I suppose it does."

He went back to his chair to finish his book, but he found he couldn't concentrate to read.

That night he definitely wasn't going to the Watch, but he did. It was a Saturday night. Duck wasn't there and Dan was relieved, but disappointed. He went up to the trees with the twenty-something-year-old with the black hair.

He had his face pressed into this guy's denim jacket and was struggling to come when Officer MacLean and Officer Davis turned on their flashlights and shouted at them to quit it and button up - they were going in for public indecency.


End file.
